10 Powerful Ways To Overcome Self-Doubt And Low Self-Esteem

As the next addition to our Mindset & Motivation series of articles, we wanted to address something I’m asked quite frequently about; how to overcome self-doubt, and equally; how to overcome low self-esteem. It’s such a common pairing of questions, concerns, and/or conditions, that we couldn’t get too far into the series without covering it, and so here we are.

Let me ask; are you tired of letting self-doubt and low self-esteem hold you back from living your best life? Maybe one or both are holding back someone you love or care about, are partners within your business, or with whom you share important time together in one way or another.

As a NeuroChange Practitioner who is also trained in practices and modalities like NLP, CBT, and REBT, I know firsthand how challenging it can be to overcome these obstacles. The good news is, though, I also know that it’s entirely possible – with the right mindset and strategies, to overcome both.

In this article, my intent is to share 10 of the more powerful ways to boost your confidence and start believing in yourself. These tips aren’t merely my suggestions but are based on proven psychological principles that I have used myself and have experience in, while also using in helping clients make lasting changes.

So, if you’re ready to break free from self-doubt and start living your dreams, keep reading!

1. Practice Self-Compassion

One of the most important things you can do to overcome self-doubt is to treat yourself with kindness and understanding. It’s so unbelievably easy to be harsh on ourselves when things don’t go as planned, isn’t it? Especially when it feels others are equally as quick to be as harsh? But this only serves to reinforce the negative beliefs we have about our abilities.

Instead, try to imagine how you’d comfort a close friend who was struggling with self-doubt. What would you say to them? And how would you deliver your support? Now, say those same words – in that say way, to yourself. Remember, you deserve the same compassion and support that you would offer to others.

Self-compassion is about being kind and understanding towards yourself, even when you make mistakes or face challenges. It’s about recognizing that everyone struggles at times and that you’re not alone in your feelings of self-doubt. When you practice self-compassion, you’re acknowledging your pain and offering yourself the support and encouragement you need as a means to overcome it.

Practice Recap:

And how will you cultivate self-compassion? Through self-talk. Instead of berating yourself for your shortcomings, try to speak to yourself with the same kindness and understanding you’d said earlier you would offer to that friend or family member, or colleague. Remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can in this moment, and that it’s okay to make mistakes. Over time, this practice can help to replace negative self-talk with more positive and supportive messages.

2. Challenge Your Limiting Beliefs

Self-doubt is often fuelled by limiting beliefs that we’ve picked up over the course of our lives. These beliefs can be things like “I’m not good enough,” “I’ll never succeed,” or “I’m not smart enough.” Maybe they’ve been delivered or reinforced by someone important in your life at a younger age, or maybe you’ve grown them into habitual reminders – uncontested, over time.

The key with these is to identify the beliefs in the first place, and then challenge them with evidence to the contrary.

Ask yourself, “Is this belief really true? What proof do I have that it’s not true?” By replacing limiting beliefs with more empowering ones, you can start to shift your mindset and build confidence.

Listen, limiting beliefs are the negative thoughts and assumptions we hold about ourselves that hold us back from achieving our full potential, right? And in consideration of the time that may have passed in creating these beliefs, they can be deeply ingrained and can be difficult to recognize and challenge. However, it’s important that we make a conscious, concentrated effort to do so if we want to overcome self-doubt and build lasting confidence.

Practice Recap:

An easy method in challenging your limiting beliefs is to examine the evidence for and against them. When you notice yourself engaging in negative self-talk, pause and ask yourself: “Is this really true?” Look for examples that contradict that particular limiting belief. If you believe you’re not good enough, make a solid effort in thinking about times when you’ve succeeded or received positive feedback on an effort. If you believe you’ll never succeed, consider the goals you’ve achieved in the past.

3. Celebrate Your Accomplishments

It’s easy to focus on our failures and shortcomings, but the reality is that this only serves to reinforce self-doubt. Instead, why not make a conscious effort to celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem? You could keep a journal of your achievements and refer back to it whenever you’re feeling doubtful. Maybe remind yourself of all the times you’ve overcome challenges and succeeded in the past.

These examples could not only help you to see that you have the strength and resilience to handle whatever comes your way but shows you the proof in having done so already.

Celebrating your accomplishments is an important way to boost your self-esteem and overcome self-doubt. When we focus on our successes, it helps to remind us of our capabilities and strengths. It’s easy to get caught up in negative thoughts and feelings, but by taking the time to acknowledge our achievements, we can start to see ourselves in a more positive light. Is that easy? Not necessarily…and some might actually say it’s harder. That level of difficulty, though, comes with how long you’ve held this opposing belief, in my opinion, so set the strategy, and execute it. Often. It will only get easier.

Practice Recap:

One way to celebrate your accomplishments is to keep a journal of your successes. If you don’t have one – or you’re struggling to come up with positives or successes, make time to think back over your life, and capture the ones that you can remember.

Note them now, so that they’re available when you need to draw on them for support.

Whenever you achieve a new goal, overcome some new challenge, or receive positive feedback, I would encourage you to write it down in that same journal. Be specific about what you accomplished and how you felt about it in the moment. Refer back to this journal whenever you’re feeling doubtful or discouraged, or just need a bit of extra support.

Seeing a record of your achievements can help to counteract your programmed negative thoughts and feelings.

4. Surround Yourself with Supportive People

The people we spend time with can have a big impact on our self-esteem. We’ve been hearing this (and seeing varying degrees of data on it) for years. If you’re surrounded by quite critical or negative people, it’s going to be hard to feel good about yourself. It just is.

Take a look at your group. And I mean an honest, open look. Are they more negative than positive? More critical, or more supportive of you? Of themselves?

Make an effort to spend more time with people who boost your confidence and make you feel good about yourself. Legitimately and authentically makes you feel good about yourself. Conversely, I’d strongly suggest you consider limiting your time with those who are critical or bring you down. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people who believe in you and your abilities.

It’s in the data; the people we surround ourselves with can have a significant impact on our self-esteem and confidence. If we spend time with critical, negative, or unsupportive people, it can be difficult to feel good about ourselves, about situations, or about anything at all. On the other hand, when we surround ourselves with positive, encouraging, and supportive people, it can help to boost our self-confidence and overcome self-doubt, it can spark and fuel motivation, and it supports us in change.

Practice Recap:

One way to surround yourself with supportive people is to evaluate your current relationships. Take a look at the people you spend the most time with and ask yourself: “Do these people make me feel good about myself? Are they more positive and supportive of who I am, or even of themselves and who they are?” If any of those answers are “No”, it may be time to limit your time with them or even end the relationship altogether. Remember, you have the right to choose who you spend time with and who you allow to influence your self-esteem. And that even pertains to family.

5. Practice Gratitude

You may not initially think so, but gratitude is a powerful tool for overcoming self-doubt and low self-esteem. When we focus on what we’re thankful for, it helps to shift our perspective and we begin to more regularly (and strongly) appreciate the positive aspects of our lives.

Make a habit of writing down three things you’re grateful for each day. As few as three, yes.

This could be anything from your health to a kind word from a friend. You can take stock in the evening before bed, or first thing in the morning. It’s been said that either is beneficial, so figure out which works best for you, and get to it. By cultivating a grateful mindset, you can start to counteract the negative thoughts and feelings that fuel self-doubt.

Practicing gratitude is a simple yet powerful way to overcome self-doubt and boost your self-esteem. When we focus on what we’re thankful for, it helps to shift our perspective from negative to positive. Instead of dwelling on our failures or shortcomings, we can appreciate the good things in our lives and the progress we’ve made. In that, we then also start to see more opportunities, and opportunity can likewise boost self-esteem.

Practice Recap:

One way to practice gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal. Each day – morning or night, take a few minutes to write down three to five things you’re grateful for (but the science seems to support as few as three). These can be big things, like a promotion at work or a loving relationship, or small things, like a delicious meal or a beautiful sunset. The key is to be specific and focus on the positive aspects of your life.

6. Seek Out Opportunities for Growth

One of the best ways to build confidence is to seek out opportunities for growth and learning. When we challenge ourselves and master new skills, it helps to reinforce the belief that we’re capable.

Now, I can fully appreciate that this may feel a little ‘cart before the horse’ for some of you, and that’s ok. ‘Looking’ or considering isn’t yet taking action, and so if that’s where you need to start (if your self-esteem is really still in a fragile place), then start there. This is your journey, and you get to set the path and the pace.

When up for it, look for ways that if you were ‘out there, taking action’, you’d stretch yourself and step outside your comfort zone with. Take a class, learn a new hobby, or take on a challenging project at work that you’d normally let slide on down the line to a colleague when up for grabs. By embracing growth and learning – even if for now it’s a thought and not yet an action, you can start to see yourself in a new light and build self-assurance.

And hey, I’m not giving you a ‘forever’ pass, here. Seeking out opportunities for growth and learning is a powerful way to overcome self-doubt and build confidence, so there will be a time for taking action. When we challenge ourselves and master new skills, it helps to reinforce the belief that we’re capable, and it’s in that recognition of competence that we’ll find motivation and action. It also provides a sense of accomplishment and pride that can counteract negative thoughts and feelings.

Practice Recap:

Let’s get to seeking out opportunities for growth, and to identify areas where you’d like to improve or develop new skills, take on something new; career, hobby, etc. Maybe you want to learn a new language, improve your public speaking skills, or start a new sport, chasing down a long-held passion, which has been held back by your limited self-belief. Once you’ve identified an area of interest, look for classes, workshops, or resources that can help you get started. And you may not act on any of it right now – but you also just might! It starts with finding or identifying it, though, so let’s go!

7. Engage in Activities You Enjoy

On that theme of opportunities and growth, engaging in activities that you’re already good at and enjoy can be a powerful way to boost your self-esteem.

When we do things that we’re naturally talented at, it helps remind us of our existing strengths and abilities. And making time for hobbies and activities that you find fulfilling and energizing, can also help to (often subconsciously) support our more conscious work in building our low or damaged self-esteem.

Whether it’s painting, playing a sport, or volunteering, engaging in activities that you love AND have a talent for or positive experience in, can help to counteract your self-doubt, while assisting in the building of your confidence and desire to ‘do more’. It can also provide us with a sense of accomplishment and pride that can counteract our otherwise negative thoughts, feelings or reinforcements.

Practice Recap:

So, engage in activities you enjoy or make time for hobbies and interests that you’re passionate about. Whatever it is you may choose, engaging in activities that you love can help reduce stress, boost your mood, and provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Recognizing that you’re talented or experienced enough to have an ability within those activities is the added bonus to the enjoyment that will help reverse those negative self-doubts.

8. Set Achievable Goals

Setting achievable goals is another important strategy for overcoming self-doubt and low self-esteem. When we set goals that are too lofty or unrealistic, it can be easy to get discouraged and give up. We can be excited by even the largest, most unrealistic of goals in the beginning (largely the dopamine opportunity), but as our negative thoughts creep back in – and we start to rationalize the goal(s), we back away.

Instead, I’d encourage you to break your goals down into smaller, more manageable steps.

Give yourself something to celebrate in each small win along the way.

By setting achievable goals and celebrating your progress, you can start to see yourself as a capable and competent person who is capable of achieving your dreams. Constructing change this way also allows or encourages you to be taking many more steps along the way, right? And as we know if neuroplasticity, it’s the numerous, repetitive actions or thoughts that will create a habit. So if we want to create the habit of taking action in so much as building out of a pit of self-doubt, then smaller, reasonably attainable actions will help.

Setting achievable goals is a powerful way to provide a sense of direction and purpose, too. It gives us a framework for measuring our progress and celebrating our successes along the way. And in each of those successes, we’re able to journal yet another way in which we really are ‘capable’, yeah? Something to offset our doubts.

Practice Recap:

Set achievable milestones or smaller goals in order to break down the larger goals into more manageable steps. Instead of setting a goal to “lose 50 pounds,” set a goal to “lose 1 pound per week for the next 50 weeks.” This makes the goal feel more attainable and less overwhelming. And in that lack of overwhelm, you’re more likely to take action. Taking action, and accomplishing the milestone or goal attached to that action will serve to build out your self-assuredness further. And self-assuredness and self-doubt can’t easily cohabitate.

9. Visualize Success

Visualization is a powerful tool for overcoming self-doubt and building confidence. When we imagine ourselves successfully handling challenging situations, it helps to prepare our minds and bodies for success.

This step or opportunity could land anywhere within these steps, but we’d wanted to also make it one as a standalone.

Take a few minutes each day to visualize yourself confidently handling situations that trigger self-doubt. Imagine yourself feeling calm, capable, and in control, no matter the situation you’re imaging yourself in. And when you’re imagining it (or if you choose to do so by ‘self-talk’), then imagine it as if it’s happening and/or happened/happens regularly. Don’t imagine it as if it WILL happen, as something in the future we have absolutely no control over, and our sub-conscious mind understands this through a lifetime of programming.

Now, stick with me for a minute; by practicing visualization, you can start to make it a reality. You can. So many studies have shown that this works, and I’m not meaning in so much as a ‘law of attraction’ kind of way (although I won’t suggest that doesn’t work, as there is a argument for its’ validity, as well), but in so much as when we’re ‘believing’ that we are doing something regularly, or that we have or are some certain thing, we’re much more likely to become involved in situations or opportunities where suddenly we actually are (or will lead to).

Where you might (or should I say “mostly likely”) not have stepped into that situation otherwise, given your challenge with self-esteem, visualization can be that powerful technique that pushes us into something that’s either already here, or that’s coming soon – given we’ll be open to it in our believing that we can or will.

So get creating those vivid mental images of yourself successfully achieving your goals or handling challenging situations. When we engage in visualization, we’re tapping into the power of our subconscious mind to help us overcome self-doubt and build confidence, by way of believing we already have. We’ve already taken a step. We’ve already attained a goal. We’ve already accomplished. We are already self-assured.

Practice Recap:

Change can be ‘practiced’ before it actually happens. Visualization is such a practice, and it’s done through setting aside a few minutes each day to imagine yourself confidently handling situations that trigger self-doubt. Close your eyes and picture yourself feeling calm, capable, and in control. Imagine the sights, sounds, and sensations of successfully navigating the situation. The more vivid and detailed your visualization, the more powerful it can be.

10. Take Action

Here we are. The big one. Taking action. You knew that this was coming, right? And hey, this article started as an over 6000 word draft, so we’re lucky I was able to whittle it down and get you here at all! LOL!

So, getting to it; ultimately, the key to overcoming self-doubt and low self-esteem is going to be in finally, at some point, taking action.

It’s easy to get stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts and feelings, but the only way to ever finally break free of a thought, is to face your fears and push through the uncertainty with action or activity.

Remember, you don’t have to be perfect or have it all figured out. Just take one small step forward, even if it feels scary. Jump into our Habit Revolution Challenge if you need a gentle, daily nudge. By taking action and facing your fears, you can start to build confidence and see yourself in a new light. And we can see ourselves in success forever, but unless we ever finally take action, we won’t have that ‘proof’ that we spoke about when journalling way back at the beginning of this article.

Taking action is the final and perhaps most important step in overcoming your challenging self-doubt and low self-esteem.

Final Practice Recap, and Closing:

If you’re ready to take action, you can feel free to start small and focus on one thing at a time. There is absolutely no need for you to try to tackle everything at once, as this can feel overwhelming and discouraging. Instead, identify one area where you’d like to make a change or one goal you’d like to work towards. Break it down into smaller, more manageable steps and start taking action, even if it feels scary or uncomfortable at first. Then go!

Overcoming self-doubt and low self-esteem is a journey that requires self-compassion, a willingness to challenge limiting beliefs, and a commitment to taking action. I am fully onboard with all of that, but what I’m not so onboard with is in how easily we can be lulled into a permanent, warm, comforting little hole in which we can sleep peacefully forever in that doubt.

By practicing these strategies – and doing so consistently, I feel you can start to build the confidence and self-assurance you need to live your best life.

Remember, you’re not alone in your struggles, and with the right support and mindset, it’s possible to overcome self-doubt and achieve your goals.